


Asylum

by aravenwood



Series: Febuwhump '19 [27]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Rodney, Kidnapping, Rodney McKay Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 15:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17942288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aravenwood/pseuds/aravenwood
Summary: They came in the night, carrying ropes for his limbs and cloth to stuff between his teeth. Rodney was so deeply asleep that he had no chance to fight, no chance to even try to escape.Written for the Febuwhump '19 prompt "asylum" and a companion piece to "Taken".





	Asylum

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy! This is a fic I've had an idea about ever since I started writing Taken. I really wanted to have Rodney's POV for his captivity, and this prompt fitted really well. 
> 
> Enjoy!

They came in the night, carrying ropes for his limbs and cloth to stuff between his teeth. Rodney was so deeply asleep that he had no chance to fight, no chance to even try to escape. He awoke as one of them forced his mouth open and stuffed the cloth so deeply inside that he choked and tried to push it back out with his tongue, but before he could a leather strap was being forced between his teeth and knotted behind his head. He tossed his head to the side and was able to escape one set of hands, only for a second to grab him by the hair and pull until he fell limp, whimpering behind the gag. The hand dragged him upright, then yet more people were touching him; grabbing his wrists and wrenching them behind his back, then tying them in place with thick ropes and tight knots.

He hadn’t even opened his eyes yet and barely remembered where they were.

When he finally did pry his eyelids apart, it all came rushing back. Faces loomed over him, their expressions twisted with hate that he was sure he had done nothing to deserve. But that was what it had been like since the moment they had stepped foot into the town and John had introduced him as a scientist. Every eye was on him, looking him up and down with such scepticism, such disgust that he’d started to feel ill and considered turning around and walking back to the ‘gate. Whispers had followed him as he’d walked with the team, fingers had pointed, cruel jokes thrown his way. John had glared at every one of them and pushed Rodney to walk in front of him “just in case”. Major Sheppard hadn’t liked this place any more than Rodney had, and he made no secret of it.

But Rodney hadn’t realised the townspeople’s unexplained hatred of him ran this deep.

“We’re gonna take you to the asylum,” hissed an elderly woman with long grey hair as two men dragged him to his feet. She leaned in so close that he could feel her breath on his face, but when he tried to flinch back she reached up and wrapped her fingers in his hair, dragging him back down to her level. “You hear me? We don’t need your type here, you’re not welcome and we’re gonna fix that.”

Rodney couldn’t answer, couldn’t make a single noise to even try and alert the others. It was all happening so fast and so quietly that John had barely stirred in his bed on the other side of the room. His brows were furrowed and his lips were moving rapidly without making a single noise, but he seemed so deeply entrenched in what appeared to be a nightmare that he was unaware of the very real nightmare in the waking world. Rodney stared hard at him, begging for his gaze to be enough to wake the other man.

No such luck. He was dragged from the room before anything could happen, twin grips on his biceps squeezing hard enough that he was sure he could feel bruises already forming.

They dragged him through the town, moving so fast that he could barely keep his feet under him. The elderly woman led the way through the streets, and they were followed by a small crowd who seemed to hate him just as much as his captors; they snarled insults at him in low, hateful voices, threw branches and rocks at his back. Every hit threatened to bring him to his knees, but the men paid no mind to his struggles – one of them even seemed to be laughing.

Soon they were out of the town and into the woods. It was so dark that Rodney could barely see, but the townspeople moved with ease like they’d made the walk a hundred times before. And maybe they had, maybe they regularly snatched people from their beds in the middle of the night and forced them to walk the way they were doing to him. He wanted so badly to ask, just to know what was going on and what he had done to deserve it, but the edges of the leather gag cut into his mouth every time he so much as shifted his jaw. He could taste blood on his tongue.

They walked for what felt like hours, and all the while the following townspeople pelted him with whatever they could get their hands on. Something heavy smacked him in the back of his head with such force that he collapsed forwards, held up only by the grips on his biceps. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed heavily through his nose as he fought for control over the sharp pain in his skull. It was worse than any other single feeling in his body, so intense that his gut clenched against the rapidly worsening nausea – nausea that couldn’t become anything more because there was no room left in his mouth and that meant either swallowing or choking, and neither of those was something he was keen on experiencing.

As he was focused on his breathing and on not throwing up, the men dragging him suddenly stopped and threw him to the ground. Instinctively he rolled onto his side and curled his knees up in a defensive gesture, waiting for the next attack. He knew it was coming, just didn’t know when.

And he was right. Once more a hand twisted in his hair and forced his head off the ground. “Coward,” hissed the voice of the elderly woman. Rodney forced his eyes open and found her hate-filled face mere inches from his own. Her lips were twisted in what could have been a smile, but it only made Rodney more anxious. He squirmed in her grip, thrashing weakly in an attempt to escape. He had to get away, had to get back to John and his team, had to get off this planet and delete the ‘gate address from their database. He had to make sure they would never get their hands on him again.

In return for his struggles, the woman tightened her grip in his hair and slammed his head against the ground.

Light exploded in Rodney’s vision, so bright even as he squeezed his eyes tight shut and tried to breathe around the pain. A muffled moan escaped from behind the gag as he tucked his chin against his chest, lifted his knees and tried desperately to hide from further attacks. But he couldn’t stop the hands from dragging him back to his feet, could only pry heavy eyelids apart and stare through blurred vision at the tiny hut they were leading him to. A hut so tiny that he was already panicking, was already gasping for air and begging his weak, exhausted body to do anything; to fight, to run, to get as far from here as he could. Do anything but hang there limply and allow him to be thrown in there.

They threw him to the ground and left, slamming the door shut behind them. The hut was plunged into darkness, but Rodney knew exactly how small it was. He could already feel the walls closing in, could already feel them choking the air from his lungs. He curled up and let out a weak sob, feeling more helpless than he had in so long.

He was trapped, afraid and in pain, and there was nothing he could do about any of it. Nothing but wait and hope that John would come for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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